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Photo: RIA Novosti – Scanpix
Photo RIA Novosti – Scanpix
Mike Fratello, a former coach of the Atlanta Hawks and other NBA clubs and Ukraine’s national team, revealed how Arvydas Sabonis ‘career could have turned into the Hawks’ team.
Now working as a commentator for the Los Angeles Clippers game, Fratello told the story during tonight’s game with the Indiana Pacers from Indiana Sabonis.
“Many years ago, Domantas’ father, Arvydas, played in the then Soviet Union,” the Fratello story began. – In 1985, I worked at the Hawks Club and had a scout who came back from the Soviet Union and said that he had probably seen the best tallest he had ever seen.
That year we got a call in the fourth round and I said, why not call a man from the Soviet Union if he’s that good? We chose him in the fourth round and got the rights to Arvydas Sabonis, who, as time has shown, was an incredible basketball player.
But at the time, he didn’t want to go to America, he felt pretty good there and was making a lot of money. In those days, if a player refused to come to the NBA, everything loses the right to summon him. As we call it, Sabonis was seen by others and that is why he drew attention to himself ”.
According to the former strategist, the Hawks’ focus on Sabonis benefited the Portland Trail Blazers.
“Next year Portland used their first-round decision, but Sabonis made it to the Trail Blazers only a few years later due to injury issues. We saw an older version of Sabonis, but even then he was an amazing basketball player.” Fratello concluded.
In fact, the Hawks’ citation was revoked because Sabonis was under the age of 21 in the 1985 NBA, as required by league rules at the time. These rules no longer existed in 1986.
Arvydas Sabonis was selected by the Blazers in 1986 in the NBA’s rookie market with 24 consumptions.
Sabonis came to the Blazers in 1995 and spent seven seasons with the team, with the best statistics ever recorded in 1997-1998. season, with 16 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists for 73 games played.
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